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Caputo Smith claimed the vacant Pennsylvania State Cruiserweight Title with the win.

Ringside Report by Resolution Sports

Crusierweights Anthony Caputo Smith (15-2, 2 KOs) and Tony Ferrante (12-5, 7 KOs) were billed as being two trucks with defects, having no reverse function and only knowing how to come forward. At Harrah’s Philadelphia on Friday night, they proved that analysis to be quite accurate.

The two Philadelphia natives put on a show in their 10-round main event for the Pennsylvania State Title, with Caputo Smith eventually earning a split decision by the tightest of scores, tallying a pair of 95-94 counts to combat a 95-94 card in favor of Ferrante.

Nicknamed the “Bull,” Caputo Smith lived up to that moniker, essentially running forward as soon as the bell rang to get each round underway and applying constant pressure onto Ferrante to prevent him from establishing any space to box. Caputo Smith clearly wanted to make Ferrante brawl, knowing his native counterpart would be much more successful if he was able to display his technical ability.

The lone knockdown of the evening came late in the sixth frame, occurring right in front of the corner of Caputo Smith. Still fighting off heavy pressure from his opponent, Ferrante rolled under a swinging right hook and then quickly planted his feet before ripping off a vicious right hook of his own. The blow landed flush onto the chin of a wide open Caputo Smith, who intelligently dropped to his knee to avoid further onslaught from his reawakened opposition. The knockdown came right before the sixth round bell, giving an adrenalin boost to Ferrante.

Ferrante then looked much more comfortable down the home stretch of this encounter, as the resilient Caputo Smith continued to come forward and keep the action in a phone booth despite his aggression finally creating visual effects of tiring. With the sixth frame knockdown and impressive comeback by Ferrante in the second half of the bout, much was in question once the final bell sent the outcome of this one to the judges.

When the official scores were revealed in favor of Caputo Smith, the corner of Ferrante erupted in disagreement while those on the side of Caputo Smith were obviously elated.

Undercard Results
A head scratching decision was made in the co-feature of the evening when Naim Nelson (11-0, 1 KO) was given a split decision victory over gritty veteran Christian Steele (4-8-2, 1 KO) by counts of 75-77, 78-74 and 79-73. The two fighters had eerily similar styles and frames, but Steele was the busier of the two and seemed to have more ring control than his counterpart. An argument could be made in favor of Nelson, but the lopsided scores were nothing short of laughable… Philadelphia featherweight Tevin Farmer (15-4, 3 KOs) put on a great technical boxing display to earn his eighth straight victory and 11th win in his last 12 outings, defeating the previously once-beaten Noel Echevarria (11-2, 6 KOs). Using sound defense and strategic attacking, he scored an eventual unanimous decision victory with tallies of 79-73 and 78-74 (twice)… In a pairing between two big heavyweights, Brooklyn native Jarrell Miller (8-0, 8 KOs) earned a TKO victory over Jon Hill (6-5, 5 KOs) in a fight that was stopped about two minutes too late. In the third round, Miller absolutely pummeled Hill the entire frame before finally crumbling him at the 2:38 mark… Cherry Hill resident Anthony Prescott (2-3-1, 1 KO) put on a gritty performance against unbeaten welterweight Jovan Sosa, but the young New Yorker was able to control the action enough to earn flush 39-37s from the ringside officials… In a middleweight contest, Ievgen Klytrov (2-0, 2 KOs) battered Romon Barber (4-7, 3 KOs) to earn an eventual TKO win at the 42-second mark of the third round… In the opening bout of the night, featherweight Robert Irizarry (1-0-1) claimed his first professional victory by defeating Arthur Parker (1-10-1, 1 KO) via unanimous decision (39-37x3)…